2 board quiver

Sounds to me like you did just fine, and, as DP321 states--do it again.
By the way, I find getting out on larger days ANYWHERE much easier on LB than on SB. You have much more forward motion and speed to get out on paddling. With turtling and "crawl over" and the occasional nose dive....piece of cake. On a SB, you can spin your wheels in the same location for a long time......

 

My challenge the past couples years has been getting myself over the mental hump of getting back into surf in the 8-10ft range. Since my injury in PR it's been hard getting over that hump. I'll surf 6-8ft but when it gets closer to DOH, I get gun-shy. Having to get back to shore with one arm completely out of the socket was not something I want to experience againe. Even in the 6-8 range that can be a b*tch but I feel more comfortable and like my chances a lot greater if it happens than if it's 8-10+. My shoulder easily dislocates with enough force from one of those waves so I have to be careful. I want it so bad but sometimes the body / mind says, not today you don't. Hopefully I can gain my confidence back in those conditions and get my shoulder in better shape (I keep saying that) to handle it.

 

Yup--that would keep me out of large size as well. So far I am lucky; my only liability now is age.

 

Thankfully, I don't pass on too many days because we don't get a ton of those conditions, but I feel a day like that is coming in the near future.

 

BTW, at which break did you dislocate your shoulder? Marias?

 

Sandy Beach on that nasty sand bar.

 

Yes it will!! I always have said that more surfers sustain injuries on sandbar beach breaks than over reefs. Yet, most fear reef breaks much more intensely...

 

It's true. I regret being impatient and paddling out at the first spot I checked just hours after landing on the Island. In retrospect, I should have just relaxed for the first few hours and watched it and checked Domes, Maria's, etc., but I was too stoked and charged liked a moron into close out city. Even the boogers were getting chomped up and spit back to shore. It was a rising swell and about to peak, well overhead with DOH sets breaking waaaaaay outside and the inside was a nightmare to navigate.

I paddled for a bomb set, hesitated as it started to crest and got hung up in the lip and got taken down into the vortex and it slammed me into the sand hard and held me there, then picked me up and tossed me like a rag doll when my shoulder snapped and my boart came flying back at me and the fin sliced my side / hip open, you could see the white meat lol It took me what seemed like forever to make it back to shore, getting set wave after set wave on the head and going through the spin cycle while my arm is completely useless and flopping around like a wet noodle.

I held onto my board for dear life with one hand and just waited for the wave that would finally toss me on the sand, which eventually happened. I was lucky to make it. I wanted to kiss the sand. Some guy walked by and told me I was bleeding, which I hadn't realized until he pointed it out. It all happened so fast my head was spinning. When my wife saw me walking up the beach, she came walking up and almost threw up when she saw my shoulder lol it was gnar.

 

Ouch--it hurts just to read that!!
Mayaguez hospitals are a dandy, aren't they??

 

She wasn't thrilled, I was more pissed that I "ruined" our vacation with a nightmare trip to the Mayaguez ER on day 1 of our trip. It ended up being a great trip despite it all though. The next day I sat at Domes and took pics of the perfect surf as I whined and cried about not being able to paddle out. The following day after the swell faded more, I was body surfing at Sandy Beach, the next day I was back on a LB lol, I managed to still surf a couple days with a mangled shoulder. Thank god for liquor!

 

On our ride to the ER we witnessed a 16 year old kid get ran over by a car. It happened at that spot as you're heading south and have to turn right just past the Taino Dive Shop to go toward downtown. He came flying out from that road by the School I think and someone was heading North as they passed through that little 3 way intersection and never saw him till it was too late. Poor kid was convulsing on the ground as we got help. Finally we were able to go around and head to the ER.

We made it there about 20 minutes before the ambulance arrived with that kid. We later found out he didn't make it. I sat and waited for about 7 hours before they finally took me back and set my shoulder. I remember trying to give them all of my personal information in Spanish, which i'm not fluent in, but can spell and say numbers and piece together some broken words, my wife is much better than me and was my translator to help the guy get my info into the computer, this took forever lol, I had to beg them for drugs, they refused to give me anything until they finally saw me 7 hours later.

I remember the needle going in and next thing you know i'm waking up in the hallway on a gurney with random people just walking by. I finally came out of the fog a little bit but was still highly under the influence and was talking non-sense, my wife has it all on camera. When we want a laugh we watch the video. I think they gave me Demerol but can't recall. Whatever it was, it was goooood.

They didn't even clean out the axe wound on my hip. My wife had to ask someone to do it, and all they did was put some iodine on it and called it a day. Stitches woulda probably helped, now I have a nasty scar since that didn't happen. I was afraid I was going to get an infection but luckily I didn't. Good times, good times.

 

Jesus Christ dude

 

wow

 

Thanks! I'm afraidde I'd pop my shoulder out, but I like the one about sitting up and then jumping to the nose, sounds easier on the old bones.

 

Yeah dudes, it was quite the traumatic experience.

 

That got my stomach churning. Damn!

 

You misinterpreted the reason for my comment.

 

What about the knee paddle turtle flip? Wasn't that you?

 

When I was a kid, there was an orthodoxy, first only single fin short boards. Then only twin fins in the under 6' range, then only thrusters from 5'9" to 6'2". Everybody rode the same thing at the same time on the same waves, no matter how big, small, choppy, or clean. Usually could afford only one old board,so you made due.

Now it's so cool to see all types of equipment (except SUPs you bastids) out there being ridden with style.